'Establishing peace is repaying fallen UN soldiers'

Patriots and Veterans Affairs Minister Pi Woo-jin, right, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, third from right, and Defense Minister Song Young-moo, fourth from right, salute the national flag together with former U.N. soldiers who fought for South Korea in the Korean War, during a commemorative event at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea, Busan, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Kim Rahn

Achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula is a way to truly repay and commemorate the sacrifice of fallen foreign soldiers and war veterans who fought for South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, President Moon Jae-in said, Tuesday.

Moon expressed gratitude to the United Nations Forces soldiers from 21 countries, in a message issued for the commemorative ceremony at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea located in Busan, held the day after June 25, the day the war broke out in 1950.

Moon was scheduled to attend the ceremony but could not make it due to bad weather that prevented his helicopter from flying. Patriots and Veterans Affairs Minister Pi Woo-jin met the war veterans who participated in the ceremony, on behalf of Moon.

The President said South Korea could keep freedom and peace and achieve the current development based on the U.N. soldiers’ sacrifice.

“Repaying the sacrifice has no frontier,” Moon said in his message. “The way we can fully repay their courage is to make a peaceful Korean Peninsula where a war never breaks out.”

He said that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in April at Panmunjeom, the symbol of the division, and promised that the peninsula would be denuclearized completely and there would be no war anymore here.

North Korea and the U.S. also pledged to recover the remains of prisoners of war and the missing in action, he noted. “The remains of about 200 American soldiers will soon be returned to the families and the country. Recovery work for still missing soldiers will also begin. The South Korean government will fulfill its responsibility for the rapid recovery and repatriating of the remains of missing American and U.N. soldiers.”

Moon said the 40,895 fallen soldiers did not sacrifice themselves in vain, adding South Korea was built up from the ruins to achieve high economic growth and democratic development. It is now sending troops overseas for U.N. peace-keeping operations, he added.

“If what South Korea has achieved is a miracle, U.N. soldiers were the heroes of the miracle. We’ll remember each of them, and make efforts so the war veterans and their families and descendants will feel proud of what South Korea is today,” he said.

The President said he would help the living foreign veterans visit Korea or hold commemorative events in their countries if they cannot come due to old age and bad health.

Seoul also plans to hold camps where South Korean children and descendants of the veterans can meet and learn about the veterans’ courage, and provide scholarships to descendants in financial difficulty, Moon said.